My Functional Front Splitter Build
 

I've only seen a handful of other people floating around the forums with functional splitters on their cars so I thought I'd give a little preview of what I'm working on right now.

It's made out of 1/4" thick plastic, I'm not sure what kind, I found a sheet of the stuff in the garage and I'm on a budget. It's pretty rigid and durable and relatively lightweight, so I shouldn't have any problems with deflection. It replaces the bottom part of the undertray and will have four whiskers when I'm done. It extends 4.5" from the bumper and reaches back to the center line of the front wheels and uses the stock mounting points for the stock undertray. I will be using my own hardware though... not those flimsy screws.

I'm hoping the front bumper is strong enough to take the forces a splitter will introduce but I may have to run some support rods down from the front crash bar.

Here's a peek at my first test fitting, it's not fully secured but you get the idea. More pictures and details on how I'm going about building this later for anyone that's interested.

Cool...keep us inform of the durability of it.

You will likely pull the bumper off with that I am afraid. Unless you brace it off the front crash bar or the frame

I did this with abs plastic too, except mine is attached to a lip

It's not going to pull the bumper off. It's not strictly mounted to the bumper.

It's attached by the two rear bolts that the normal undertray uses, then it has 10 bolts with NyLoc nuts attaching it to the bumper. 4 of them go all the way through the lip and use fender washers to attach directly to the bumper, the other 6 are just through the black lip. I mounted the black lip to the bumper with the same type of bolts instead of those plastic clips. I've also riveted the splitter to the two upright plastic supports which are bolted to the frame. I put about 100lbs of weight on it and it was fine, only a little bit of deformation and that's without whiskers installed yet. Also everything on the bottom of the splitter is countersunk. It's completely flat and smooth.

It's all mounted up minus the whiskers. I'll probably work on those tomorrow or Wednesday.

Picture of the actual splitter is attached. More pics coming soon.

thats pretty cool dude.
getting vids of it at speed may be helpful?

Thanks man.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Going to use a GoPro to see what it's doing at driving speeds and see if a more solid mounting solution is necessary.

very nice, very interested in the progress of this!

Well, shakedown is complete. Did two events, one at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, New Mexico with the Arizona Mazda Club, and the other at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in Desert Center, CA.

Splitter is still just as solid as when I put it on, it's taken a couple light impacts from some offroading but there's no damage whatsoever. After reviewing some video footage, there's almost no flex under load.

The effects weren't really apparent at Arroyo Seco because there was only one relatively high speed corner, but at Chuckwalla, the lowest gear you use is 3rd lmao. In the 3rd gear 80-90MPH flat out corners, front end grip FOR DAYS. Adjusted my sway bars to account for the splitter, went to Medium in the front and Full Soft in the rear from Full Soft Front and Full Stiff rear. Basically dialed in understeer, but the car had less understeer than the previous settings. It ended up working better than I imagined it would and am completely happy with how it turned out, both in performance and looks.

In other news, found a puddle of oil under the car while it was on the Dyno yesterday, and it Dyno'd lower than before with the addition of AEM Intake, BHR Midpipe and Tuning. Compression test incoming...

Pics:

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Looks great!!
Super kewl on its effects too!!

where did you get the wiskers?

thanks for updating the thread!!

I made them out of 8/32" threaded rod. Bent them around a coffee can in pairs then put black plastic tubing over them. It's fully adjustable by moving the nuts on the splitter.

there it a difference between front end feel with a front lip and not at about 125 mph. in a semi straight line..

long story.. :)

beers :beer:

At what speed does a front splitter become helpful?

I can feel a difference at about 65MPH. It's more noticeable at 80+.

for me in a straight line i started feeling lift at ~128 in a straight line.. that is when the front end would start to get light.. with lip, solid to 142. but the car used to get to 148.

on track the lip i have makes a difference braking into a corner at over 105.

but i have lots of mods.. and denny is way, way faster than i every could be.

beers :beer:

I was talking about in the middle of corners and how it affects understeer... not going in a straight line. I've never been on a track where I've been able to get the car above like 115 on the straight anyways... not really sure what track you're running at that you can wind the car out to 140+.

Lets see a picture of your splitter while you're at it if you're going to go around in other threads and tell me I don't know how my car handles and that aero doesn't do anything for cornering force.

And who is Denny?

diy write up? This was a sick idea. Looks great man

thanks for the info, that is a clever idea!!

Thanks dude.

I thought about a DIY thread but it's really as simple as it seems.

Unbolt the stock undertray piece, use it as a template on a strong, light material of your choice, then extend that template by 4.5" along the front curvature. (If I did it again I would use Alumalite), drill holes in the lower lip/bumper, bolt it on, drill holes in the stock undertray mounting locations, bolt it in there, drill holes in the front crash bar, drop two threaded rods down from there and bolt them in for extra support, then take threaded rod and radius it to make whiskers, secure with nuts and fender washers, boom, mad aero! :p:

looks great Aaron! I need to do one too...

If i ever take it off I'll trace a template onto cardboard and bring it to the track for you.

A friend of mine has access to carbon fiber vacuum forming tools and we've been tossing around the idea of making a few of them if you're interested. The cost would be much cheaper than something like say APR.

^Thanks. PM sent...

x2 ill take one!!!!!! pm me the info^^^^ awesome 8 btw!!!!! love the pics

If there's interest then I might be able to do a small run of them but we'll have to see.





Also here's another picture from Arroyo Seco in Deming, NM.

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well remember the name haha ill be here for this one ive tried to develop my own but funds and time seem to vanish all too quickly haha once again amazing photography and amazing car i cant wait to see that splitter on my 8 :D